BCCI chief N Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was today chargesheeted by Mumbai Police in the IPL betting case for criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery in a blow to him days ahead of the Cricket Board's AGM where he intends to seek a year's extension.
Apart from Meiyappan, former Team Principal of IPL franchise Chennai Superkings, owned by Srinivasan's India Cements, actor and reality TV star Vindoo, and 20 others have been made accused in the case. 35-year-old Meiyappan was arrested on May 25 and he was granted bail on June 3 along with Vindoo.
Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf, 15 alleged bookies from that country and eight others have been shown in the 11,609-page charge sheet filed in the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate Uday Padwad as wanted accused.
Mumbai Police Joint Commissioner Himanshu Roy told reporters that investigations in the case showed that 40 SIM cards were purchased using fake documents. The list of wanted accused also included bookies from the UAE, he said, adding police examined 205 witnesses and seized 150 mobile phones among other equipments.
The charge sheet, according to Crime Branch sources, has enclosed forensic reports containing call data records of various conversations between the bookies, Vindoo, son of late wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh, and Meiyappan.
Meiyappan and others have been charged under IPC sections 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery of record of court or of public register), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 490 (breach of contract), 420 (cheating), 212 (harbouring the offender), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
Besides these, they have also been charged under section 66A of the Information Technology Act, sections 4 and 5 of the Gambling Act.
All accused have been charged only for betting and not spot-fixing the IPL matches.
Srinivasan was forced to step aside as BCCI chief amid a massive uproar after the spot fixing and betting scandal broke out in May this year, but he has remained defiant and expressed his intention to seek a one-year extension as the top-most cricket administrator at the Annual General Meeting of the Cricket Board on September 29.
The Tamil Nadu strongman sought to distance himself from his controversial son-in-law.
"I have always maintained that if Gurunath is wrong then the law will take its own course. You people must realise that I am not disqualified at all...," Srinivasan said in Chennai.
